Hastings native honored at film festival | News

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Oscar-winning actress Sandy Dennis will be honored this weekend with a film festival at the Hastings Museum.

Margaret Marsh, the director of the Sandy Dennis Film Festival, said filmmakers from across the globe submitted entries for the festival.

The festival has two categories: Short Narrative Film and Short Documentary Film, not to exceed 20 minutes.

Marsh said a panel of five viewed the entries submitted by the deadline in February and decided which films to include in showings this weekend, as well as the award winners. She said the group was especially interested in films written or directed by women, or films featuring a strong female lead.

“Sandy liked to play unconventional roles,” she said.

The museum has put together a mini-exhibit about Dennis in the museum’s queuing area so movie goers can learn more about the festival’s namesake.

Dennis was born in Hastings and lived in the city for  many years before moving to Lincoln, where she graduated high school and took a semester of college.

She then moved to New York and became an actress with her first television role in the soap opera “Guiding Light.”

Dennis made her movie debut in 1961 in a supporting role in “Splendor in the Grass.”

She won a Tony Award in 1963 for her performance on Broadway as a social worker in “A Thousand Clowns.”

The following year she won another Tony as the offbeat mistress of a tycoon in “Any Wednesday.”

She won an Academy Award in 1966 for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Honey, the timid wife of a new college professor, in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”

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Dennis died from ovarian cancer in 1992 at the age of 54.

The film festival will begin Friday evening with a screening of “The Out-Of-Towners, starring Dennis as the mousy wife of a manic husband collecting the names of everyone he encounters with plans to sue, portrayed by Jack Lennon.

Marsh said Friday’s reception starting at 6 p.m. will honor Dennis, who would have turned 82 on Saturday.

“Friday’s about celebrating her legacy,” Marsh said.

On Saturday will feature three blocks of film entries, with a fourth block on Sunday.

Organizers Sunday will announce awards for best documentary, best narrative, best actress and audience choice, based on votes from attendees.

“There’s something for just about everyone,” she said. “There is a large assortment of subjects and a lot of different approaches.”

Marsh said she is relatively new to short films, but has fallen in love with the format.

“If you’ve never seen short films, this is a good chance to see what they are all about.”

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